


it eez what it eez

by cloudself



Series: parkner [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Internalized Homophobia, Laken, M/M, Peter Parker Has Anxiety, abbie keener knows, also big thanks to lily for teaching me what writing sprints are, and esther, but it isn’t explicitly stated, em - Freeform, for encouraging me to continue on the parkner discord, fuck is used, im bad at writing fanfictions im s o r r y, lexie - Freeform, like twice, more like it’s kind of obvious if you read it, this is dedicated to the following people:, tony’s a dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:20:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23336017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudself/pseuds/cloudself
Summary: soulmate au: whatever you write on your arm shows up on your soulmate’s arm.peter talks a lot. harley deals with internalized homophobia
Relationships: Harley Keener/Peter Parker
Series: parkner [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1678228
Comments: 22
Kudos: 283





	it eez what it eez

**Author's Note:**

> tHIS IS BAD SORRY

Harley has never needed a phone. He didn’t have any friends at school, at least, not ones that he would consider to be a friend. They were just people he hung out with sometimes, not someone he would share a life-changing secret with, like being gay. Which he isn’t.

The only person he’s ever needed to talk to while not being right next to him is someone that he can constantly talk to without having to hide a screen in his lap. His soulmate talks a lot, and probably isn’t very good at keeping track of things, because he has a brand new color every day. 

‘did you know that penguins actually do have kneecaps?’

Harley has to cover his mouth with his hand to stop from snorting in the middle of class. His teacher is droning on and on about the earth’s orbit and his soulmate is much more interesting. They’re super into Star Wars, and that’s all they’ve been talking about up until this random conversation changes. 

‘I would imagine so?’ Harley wrote back. 

‘i never would have figured,’ his soulmate replied. They write fast, much faster than Harley. But he supposes that it benefits them both, because his soulmate can get out more words while they’re on their tangents and Harley doesn’t get bored of waiting. ’because their legs are like, stubby, right? and they’ve got the fluffy part and then right under, they have the orange feet.’ 

‘how does this even lead to you not thinking that they have kneecaps?’ Harley asked. 

’i just don’t know where they would fit,’ his soulmate replied honestly. She doesn’t say anything more. Maybe she was caught by a teacher, or distracted by someone else. Based on their conversations, Harley figured that she pays attention to things for a short amount of time before moving on to something else. He doesn’t mind, he’s got a worksheet to procrastinate on. 

“Mr. Parker!” Peter jolted, eyes wide as he lifted his head from where he had been hovering over his arm. His soulmate was indulging in his random thoughts, and Peter appreciated their patience. 

“U-uh, yes, Mr. Frolick?” he stuttered out. Ned ducked his head to hide his smile, and Peter glared at him. 

“Is there any reason that you’re not watching the board while I’m trying to teach?” Mr. Frolick asked, hand on his desk. He reminded Peter of some old butler, or maybe a college professor. 

“N-no, not at all, sir,” Peter said. “It’s just, I’ve learned this material before, so I can do the work without having to watch this video.” At the narrowing of his teacher’s eyes, Peter internally cursed himself out with words that a seven year old shouldn’t know. Why does he talk so much? He could just apologize for not paying attention and move on with his life. But no, of course he couldn’t keep his big mouth closed. 

“Oh really?” Mr. Frolick asked. “Then tell me, what is it called when a plant makes it’s own food?”

“Photosynthesis, sir,” Peter said, fiddling with the end of his hood sleeve. The class is silent for a few moments, aside from the flipping of pages as kids scoured their notebook to see if their classmate was correct. 

“I-is that it?” Peter asked nervously. 

“Yes, that is the answer,” Mr. Frolick said, albeit reluctantly. “Pay attention in class. One day, there might be something that you don’t know.”

Peter knew that he’d be on what the kids have dubbed “Santa Frolick’s Naughty List.” The teacher was known throughout the student body for being a man who was extraordinarily good at holding grudges. A girl named Belle had brought one of her baby snakes to school and tried to hide it once, but it got out of her bag and into Mr. Frolick’s coffee. When he figured out it was her, he always assigned her the assignments with insects. Peter figured that it was because the teacher thought snakes ate insects or something. He knew, like everyone else, that Belle only pretended to hate holding and working with the bugs, though. She would cry and make a fuss when he was in the room, but happily keep to herself with the bugs when he wasn’t. Peter personally thought it was very clever of her. 

‘i hate science.‘ Peter blinked in surprise at his soulmate’s declaration. They always thought fondly of that subject in the past. He picked up his red marker

‘that’s a change,‘ he replied. ‘why?’

’what’s the point of learning about gravity for so long?’ his soulmate complained. ’all they need to teach us is what it does and maybe Newton. they don’t need to spend a whole three weeks teaching us about it.’

‘gravity’s pretty interesting, though,‘ Peter said. 

‘yeah sure, but it gets boring when someone uses the word gravity five times in a sentence.‘ 

Peter shook his head and smiled. ‘whatever you say.‘

’i thought you would agree with me. this is betrayal. betrayal of the highest form.’

Peter bit his sleeve to hide his smile. Maybe being in trouble with Mr. Frolick was worth it. 

“Hey Parker! Welcome back,” Ben called after Peter closed the door to the house. 

“Hi Uncle Ben!” the boy replied. He kicked off his shoes and ran down the hallway, sliding on his socks into the kitchen. His uncle looked up from his book, setting it on the counter to hug his nephew. 

“Welcome home, buddy,” Ben said. “How was school?”

“Great!” Peter said, grinning. “Turns out my soulmate really hates learning about gravity.”

“That’s a peculiar thing to hate,” Ben said. “Why do they?”

“They said that it was annoying to listen to teachers go on and on about it for so long,” Peter shrugged. 

“That makes sense,” Ben nodded. “May’s gonna get here soon. She’s had a pretty stressful week. What do you think we should do?”

“For her?” Peter asked. Upon seeing his uncle nod, he said, “Maybe make her those fudge desserts?”

“Lava cake?” Ben guessed. 

“Yeah! That,” Peter smiled. Ben returned it and clapped the young boy on the back.

“Let’s get to it, then.”

It’s many years later before Harley is concerned for his soulmate. The usually talkative girl had gone radio silent for a whole three days. There was nothing, not even a stray marker dash that let Harley know she was even alive. 

mhey, i know something’s been going on, but just draw something to let me know you’re okay. please.’ 

Harley stares at the words he wrote for a while. He knew that he was expecting something, only to be disappointed when his soulmate did absolutely nothing to contact him. He huffed, drawing the attention of his sister on the couch. 

“What’s up?” she asked, setting down her Hot Wheels car. The toy zipped down the orange pathway she set for it and flew off the ramp all together. 

“My soulmate’s been completely quiet,” Harley grumbled, sinking down on the couch. 

Abbie’s nose crinkled. “That’s it?”

“What do you mean ‘that’s it?’” Harley demanded. “I’m supposed to love her but I can’t do that if something terrible has happened to her?”

Abbie went quiet, nudging the toy car of hers. “How can you be so sure about that?”

Harley blinked a few times. “About what?”

“About your soulmate being a girl.” Both Keeners stopped moving completely. Harley stared at her, his thoughts overturning in his head. 

Why did he automatically think that his soulmate was a girl? She (he? They?) had never given him any insight about her gender, so maybe she was a boy. Or maybe she was a they. Harley had no idea of knowing until he met his soulmate. But, they had to be a girl, right? Harley was straight. He’d never felt anything for any boys before, only ever crushes on girls. And plus, if he did actually like boys, then those crushes wouldn’t have made any sense. 

All his brain can tell him is that he’s lying. He’s lying, because he’s stared at Luke Bryan and Bradley Lewis in the locker rooms and he can’t imagine himself kissing or even touching a girl in that way. 

“I’ve only ever liked girls,” Harley said after a few moments. The words rattled around in his mouth, tasting like metal. “That means I’m straight. So my soulmate is a girl, because I don’t like boys.”

Abbie stared at him for a little bit, then nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, ok.” She retrieved her toy car from where it had fallen beneath the coffee table and never said anything about the topic again. 

“I think you’ll love him.” Tony Stark, or Iron Man, or Harley’s kind-of dad is walking with him down the hallways of the Avengers tower. He’s got a friendly hand on Harley’s shoulder, and his grin is huge while he talks about this Peter Parker. Harley felt like he knew the boy already, from what Tony told him. 

“If I didn’t know you well, I’d think you were some pedophile who had a crush on him,” Harley remarked after Tony said, for the fifth time, how much Parker’s smile lit up a room. 

Tony made a face. “That’s disgusting, Kiddo. Hey, F.R.I.D.A.Y. Is the kid in there?”

“Yes, sir,” the A.I. responded, opening the doors for the billionaire and southerner. Inside sat a boy in a dark blue hood, using a screwdriver to poke at some black piece of metal that Harley couldn’t recognize with the way the boy was hovering over it. 

“Peter!” Tony called out. The boy’s head shot up and my god this boy was cute. Harley may be straight, but he can recognize another guy’s attractiveness. Peter had wavy light brown hair and bright eyes with grease on his nose and cheeks. He smiled brightly upon seeing Tony. 

“Hey, Mr. Stark!” he said. His eyes trailed over to Harley, looking him up and down before clearing his throat. “U-uh, who is this?”

“This is Harley, a kid I met a while back,” Tony said. 

“He broke into my garage,” Harley cut in. 

“Kid-”

“So I shot him with a potato gun-”

“-Harley-”

“And I gave him a watch that belonged to my sister so now we’re connected.” Peter watched in amusement as the two bantered. 

“That seems like a story,” he said, setting the screwdriver down. 

“I’ll tell you later,” Tony waved him off. He tugged Harley over to Peter’s workspace. 

“What’s that?” Harley asked, pointing to the black. . . thing(?) on Peter’s table. 

“Oh!” Peter brightened, and Harley finally realized what Tony was talking about; Peter really did light up a room. 

“It’s a hearing aid design that I’m making for Mr. Uncle Hawkeye Clint Barton. I plan on selling it to the public, too. I think that there are people who need affordable stuff like this, and—” Harley tried to listen to whatever else Peter was saying, he really did, but all he could remember was a piece of writing that his soulmate had sent him earlier. 

I should make affordable hearing aids for people who need it. Like Hawkeye.

Harley’s soulmate was a boy. 

Peter couldn’t help but notice Harley avoiding him after the first day of knowing each other. The taller boy would say good morning and hello to him whenever they saw each other, but when Peter entered a room, Harley was quick to leave it a few minutes after. For the first week, Peter figured that he was overthinking the whole situation, but the more he observed Harley, the more things he noticed. Like, how Harley would shift away from him and avoid looking him in the eyes. Peter racked his brain for anything he could have done to make Harley uncomfortable. Was it his talk about jellyfish? Or was it his long tangent about burnt popcorn? Tony said that Harley was pretty patient, so those things didn’t seem like very good explanations. And Tony wouldn’t lie to him. Well, Peter thought he wouldn’t. Would he? It wasn’t exactly something that was out of the picture. Peter had been lied to plenty of times before, so why would people stop now? Peter was naive and gullible, he figured it would be pretty easy to lie to him. So, was Tony lying to him? Or was there something genuinely wrong with Harl—

“Parker!” Peter jolted, blinking a few times to ground himself to Earth. Harley was snapping his fingers in front of his face. He sighed in relief when he saw Peter acknowledge him. 

“Oh thank God. I thought you were dead or somethin’. I don’t think the old man would be very happy with me if you died on my watc—”

“Do you hate me?” Both teenagers blinked at each other, neither fully understanding what had come out of Peter’s mouth. 

“Do I. . .” Harley trailed off. “Why would you think that I hate you?”

“Well, you were avoiding me and you wouldn’t look me in the eyes and I guessed I had done something wrong,” Peter said quickly. “Nevermind. It’s stupid. Sorry for worrying you. You can go back to working, or whatever.” Harley put his hands up, effectively shutting Peter’s mouth. 

“I don’t hate you,” the southern boy clarified after a moment. 

“That’s. . .” Peter trailed off. “Good.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.” They fell into a silence. 

“So. . .why were you acting so weird?” Peter asked. “Well, not weird, I’m not calling you weird, I swear. Jeez that came out wrong, I promise I don’t think you’re weird. Just, your behavior has been kind of weird. Not that you’re weird!”

“I get it,” Harley said. He sighed, sitting on a stool by Peter’s work table. Peter watched his every move. 

“I just. . .” Harley trailed off, moving around. “Do you have a pen?”

“Uh, yeah, yeah! I do have a pen,” Peter grabbed his backpack, digging through it to find the marker kit that he kept with him at all times. Harley flinched upon seeing it, and Peter almost put it back, but he powered through and handed a purple marker. Harley muttered a small, “thanks,” and wrote something simple on his arm. Peter couldn’t read it. 

“What. . ?” Peter asked. Harley reached over and took his arm, rolling up his sleeves. He didn’t react to Peter’s scars, instead pointing to purple words on Peter’s arm. 

‘I think we’re soulmates.’

Peter blinked, looking between Harley’s arm and his own. “We’re. . ?”

“Yeah,” Harley mumbled. 

“B-but that’s good, right?” Peter asked, studying the other’s face. 

“We’re both boys,” Harley said. 

“So?” Peter said. 

“It’s. . .” Harley looked lost. “It’s weird.”

Peter flinched. “Ouch.” Harley just stared at him. 

“It’s not weird,” Peter said. “What makes you think that?”

“I guess. . .” Harley said. “I don’t know. It’s just not right. And it shouldn’t be right. But every time I look at you I feel something. It’s this tingly feeling, like my head is spinning and my stomach is turning. I should be feeling this for a girl, not. . . not you.”

Peter nodded, letting his arms fall into his lap. “Harley. . .do you really believe that? Or is that what other people have told you.”

“I don’t even know anymore,” Harley admitted. “I thought I believed that, but then my sister asked how I figured my soulmate was a girl, and it’s always been boys that I’ve looked at, and now my soulmate is actually a boy? It’s like life wants to fuck me over, or something.”

Peter hesitantly reached out to grab Harley’s hands. He studied the other’s face, and when he found no discomfort, he continued. “Life doesn’t want to fuck you over. You’re perfectly fine the way you are.”

Harley stared at him, then shrugged. “I guess.” Peter could see the thoughts turning in the other boy’s head, and he could only guess what they were feeding him. 

“I’ll be here with you the whole time, even if you don’t want to be with a boy,” Peter declared. 

Harley’s lips curled into a small smile. “Okay, Parker.”

“What, you don’t believe me, Keener?”

“The fact that you’re getting so defensive doesn’t help your case—”

“Oh shut up!”

**Author's Note:**

> join the parkner discord or i will steal the left shoe from every pair you own
> 
> https://discord.gg/6Shqby


End file.
